The
Mundrabilla incident of a few years ago received much
media publicity. The Knowles described how the UFO shot
over their car and lifted it off the road. Their voices
changed in pitch, the family dog in the car went crazy,
and the car started shaking. The news media described
the incident as a 'UFO attack' and reported that the car
was covered by strange dust.

January
20, 1988 was the day that the Knowles family and their
two dogs had an unexplainable experience whilst travelling
across the Nullarbor Plain, in the early hours of the
morning.

At
about 4.00 a.m., Faye Knowles and her sons Patrick, 24,
Sean, 21, and Wayne, 18 were between Madura and Mundrabilla
with Sean driving and Patrick next to him in the front
seat when a bright light was seen ahead of them. Sean
thought the light strange and asked his brother if he
thought it was a spaceship. This idea was rejected by
his brother, but Seans interest was piqued and he
sped the car up in order to catch up to the object and
get a closer look. At about 20 metres from the object,
the family say they were confronted with a white blinding
light that moved along in front of their moving vehicle.
It was about 1 metre wide and described as a slightly
angular egg in an egg-cup shape with a yellow centre.
The object, which at first appeared to be either on the
ground or immediately above it, then began to move back
and forth. Sean swerved the car to the opposite side of
the road to avoid a collision with the object, but then
nearly collided with a station wagon towing a caravan
coming in the other direction (The occupants of this second
car have never come forward). The object then circled
around to the right side of their car and appeared to
give chase to the second vehicle towing the caravan. The
Knowles made 2 u-turns at this point, the first to give
chase to the object, and the second to abandon this idea
as they had grown frightened. They had, at this point,
gained the idea that the object was after them.

At
some point, the family felt that the UFO had returned
and had landed on their vehicle. They heard a clunking
sound and felt that the car was being pushed down by a
weight that rested on top of it.

By
now, the family was understandably frightened, and the
following events are difficult to unravel in retrospect.
The family believed that the car was lifted above the
road, though none of them were able to estimate for how
long or how high. Mrs. Knowles wound down a rear window
and reached for the roof. She felt something soft and
rubbery that was hot but did not burn her hand, and when
she brought her hand back into the car, she found it covered
in a blackish dust. This event caused a panic in the rest
of the family. Patrick wound down his window, only to
be covered in the fine dust, which was accompanied by
a foul smell that was likened to dead bodies. A high-pitched
sound was then heard, which sent the dogs into a frenzy.
The family became disoriented and felt that their voices
had become slower, and lower in pitch. They believed,
at this point, that they were going to die. Patrick said
that he felt that his "brain was being sucked
out", and Mrs. Knowles likened it to having something
"going into our heads".

A
while later, the family felt the car forced back down
onto the road, bursting the rear right tire. Sean brought
the car to a sudden stop and then blacked out. The family
left the car hurriedly and hid in some bushes by the side
of the road. They remained there for 15 minutes before
changing the tire and continuing on to the nearest town.

Unknown
to the Knowles, a truck driver, Mr. Graham Henley
also saw, at the same time and in the same area, a strange
light in his rear view mirror. He described as being like
a strong spotlight and like a "big fried egg hung
upside down". He kept the object in view for
5 minutes and did not see any car headlights beneath it.
Shortly after Henley pulled into Mundrabilla, he saw the
Knowles car arrive, and was confronted by the frightened
family all trying to describe their experience. He looked
over their car and confirmed the presence of black ash
in various areas, both inside and on the exterior of the
vehicle, and likened it to fine silicon sand with a burnt
odour to it. He also noted four indents in the roof of
the car and the damaged tire. Henley and two of his friends
also surveyed the scene of the incident, finding skid
marks, footprints and tread tracks that they felt confirmed
the Knowles' account of their incident.

The
family had, by this time, arrived at Ceduna and been interviewed
by the police there, who confirmed that the family were
visibly shaken. They also reconfirmed the presence of
the four dents and the fine dust. UFO Research South Australia
was contacted and arrangements were made for the Knowles'
to continue to Adelaide for further investigation. Keith
Basterfield was at this stage brought into the investigation,
and he stated that it "appeared to be an extraordinary
example of a close encounter that had left physical traces."
However, owing to the story reaching the media, serious
investigation became obstructed by chequebook journalism,
with investigators needing to mediate with a television
station to be able to talk to the Knowles. The TV station
did, however, commission a laboratory investigation of
the vehicle, which concluded that 'no significant dust
was observed on the vehicle as presented for inspection'.
UFO researchers did manage to obtain samples themselves,
which they forwarded to Dr. Richard Haines, a NASA scientist
at the time, who concluded that the dust taken from the
interior of the car was different to the dust sampled
from the exterior. Further tests by different analysts
have provided no evidence of it being alien or unusual.

Unfortunately,
none of this is conclusive. There were other UFO reports
in the same area at the same time, which tends to imply
that something unusual occurred. The only conclusion we
can safely come to, though, is that something happened,
and that the family witnessed an unusual light and were
extremely frightened by its effects. All we have is an
interesting story, and still no clear idea of exactly
what happened.